Wayne Rooney absence gives us a chance, says Moldova assistant
Last updated on .From the section Football

Moldova assistant manager Ion Testemitanu believes the absence of Wayne Rooney will give his side a chance against England on Friday.
The striker will miss the World Cup qualifier because of injury.
"Rooney not playing is very, very big for us - we are very lucky," Testemitanu, who played for Bristol City from 1998 to 2001, told BBC Sport.
"Andy Carroll not playing is also good news. We have a chance now. Anyone can win on any day."
Moldova are 141st in the Fifa rankings - 138 places below England.
And Testemitanu, the only Moldovan to have played professional football in England, admits his side will be huge underdogs when the sides meet at the 10,400-capacity Zimbru stadium in Chisinau on Friday.
"We are realistic and understand who England are and will be careful from the first minute to the 90th," he said.
"England are always very good - there are no secrets. I saw how they played at Euro 2012 and was impressed.
"We are a young team and a young country, with a population of only four million."
In the absence of Rooney, Testemitanu thinks captain Steven Gerrard will be the key player for England.
"I think he is the best player in the team," he said. "Gerrard is the captain and leader and makes key passes and shots. In every game he shows that he is still a top player."
The 38-year-old has fond memories of his time in England and says he has been "dreaming of this game for a long, long time".
He played at Bristol City by then manager Tony Pulis, who had been impressed with his performances in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers against England.
The pair are still in contact, and Testemitanu recently spent time at Stoke City as part of his Uefa Pro Licence course.
"Tony helped me a lot when I arrived in Bristol," he said. "It was hard to adapt at first. I came from an ex-USSR country which was very strict. I was arriving in a capitalist country where I could do whatever I wanted and I did not know what to do.
"I didn't know the language, how to dress, how to behave, nothing. None of the players had even heard of Moldova. One of them said Moldova was the only white country in Africa and everyone believed it.
"But I became good friends with Scott Murray, Brian Tinnion and the chief scout Tony Fawthrop and gradually I started to fit in."
Testemitanu also had a starring role in the book - recently made into a film - "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis", in which the English comedian Tony Hawks tracked down each member of the 1997 Moldovan football team and played them at tennis.
Testemitanu's daughter, Ana, took up tennis following the match and is now the number-one ranked junior player in Moldova.
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That'd be Dave Messi, usually found sprawled unconscious over the snooker table in the Dog & Duck.
Why don't we have a team of "lesser team bullies" (such as Crouch) who'll get us through these tricky away ties? They can then make way fro those more suited to the top sides when we have to face them.
It'll maybe save Wayne a few yellow cards if nothing else...
Gerrard is well past it!
Euro 2012 - 2 games without Rooney resulted in a draw and win. 2 games with Rooney resulted in a draw and a win.
So no, England are pretty much the same with Rooney as without.
Defoe should start up front IMO.
Also, what has any of this news article got to do with Liverpool? Commentors on here as deluded as the England fans that reckon they'll win the 2014 World Cup.
>Pass back to defence
>kick ball as hard as possible to wingers
>lose ball
>defend
>kick ball as hard as possible to wingers
>lose ball
Yeah ... hopefully Carrick can pick some passes to the forwards than having to watch the ball float over his head more times than Spain string passes together.
Wayne Rooney absence gives us a chance, says England assistant
We're agreed then.
Did you see his performance in the Euros? Truly abysmal - the only reason he's in the England side is there's nobody much better, and managers will be slated if they lose without the over-hyped Rooney. England are not good these days.
That's odd, seeing as he was signed for Bristol City by Benny Lennartsson in December 1998, a full eight months before Pulis arrived.
We could play a team entirely consisted of blue square premier league players and still get the job done and give some unlikelies a cap for England